How do you guys like the Brawler's Guild?

[Damien 1457]

For those who got to play it, how do you like the Brawler's Guild so far?

I enjoyed it a lot on the PTR. You can just make pre-made accounts and test the fights on many different characters. Some fights are pretty boring, but others are really challenging. I'm thinking of Dominika the Illusionist as a Rogue with item level 483 gear + 463 weapons and trinkets (default PTR gear). You don't have much to mitigate magic damage and if you spend too much time killing the illusions, Dominika kills you and if you spend too much time killing Dominika, the illusions kill you :P

[Vlad 367]

Heh. Well I've done all 4 Rank 1 opponents, which isn't much, but I liked it. I over-gear it massively, which kind of made them trivial, but I like the place in general. And I actually got to chat with strangers, which is quite rare these days. Will post when I have more.

[MoacaBogdan 23]

It is a welcome addition to the game, since now you can socialise and make friends with people from other realms. Got to love the raid groups forming for the buffs.

There is also the preety serious challenge that the fights represent. I am currently fighting a rank 5 boss, (the huge Zangarmarsh type squid walker, Proboscus). The fights so far have really forced me to really look over my entire skill/talent set, with great effects (not being that much of a PvP-er, Physchic Scream, Silence, Psychic Horror, Psyfiend were quite uneeded, until now).

Edited December 5, 2012 by MoacaBogdan

[Thoden 6]

I have not tried it yet but I did enjoy watching it. I really enjoyed that atmosphere there while watching. Just waiting now for my invite. :D

[Peelyon 416]

Managed to play a little. I very rarely play and sort of dps role (in pve or pvp) so its nice to actually spec to shadow on my priest for once!

Think I am sadly getting to the stage where my lack of knowledge of the class and my holy gear (although reforged for dps) is starting to hold me back!

I've enjoyed watching others a lot more than I thought I would. We are hoping when it gets a bit quieter that we can get a few more guildies involved and have a bit of a social event getting to watch each other fight etc :)

[Dharion 2]

To me....let me clarify that again, TO ME, The Brawler's Guild stinks of elitism and exclusion.

[Peelyon 416]

To me....let me clarify that again, TO ME, The Brawler's Guild stinks of elitism and exclusion.

I think this is a very valid point, but arguably with every thing else in the game catered towards the casual player (arguably) I think its nice to have something that is only accessible to a few in the early stages.

Remember it will become available to all over time, and the only real thing you are missing out on (other than the experience which will not change), is a battle pet and a set of heirloom fist weapons.

I'm happy to divulge that I spent 90k gold to get one of the first 10 on my server, the next 10 selling at below 40k. So I spent 50k extra for 24 hours more play time in the Brawlers, of which I only fought Bruce and Vian due to the cross realm queuing system. Worth it? Probably not. But now the invitations are selling 2k-5k each day only a week or so after the release.

Obviously this is all relative to each and every server but it will be accessible to all eventually. For me it was nice to be able to experience some new content without having to be part of a hardcore PvP or PvE group.

Be patient, everyone will see the content soon enough :)

[Clisis 5]

I might as well add my two cents into this convo. This has alot of work to be done such as some fights CANNOT (by any means) be done by some classes. Example would be Battletron. My guildmaster is a shadow priest and unlike locks that can cast and move shadow priest find that little harder then the average lock can do. Now I understand of making the fight hard for all classes but it seems like for some if not most all fights its near impossable for some classes. I like the idea but making it impossible is not really making me want to go into it espally when I see enhanse sham go in with EVERY cooldown and burn the boss in 2 seconds flat.

#Bruce2016

[Vlad 367]

To me....let me clarify that again, TO ME, The Brawler's Guild stinks of elitism and exclusion.

I don't think it's as bad you make it seem. In particular, you use the word exclusion with a negative connotation, when it's really not that way. It's not an exclusive club into which you cannot enter. It's a small club into which you CAN enter, anyone can enter, and everyone who is even remotely interested in WILL be able to enter sooner or later.

Everything else that is released in the game is equally available to all players, regardless of how many are trying to do it. Sure, sometimes you can't get to stuff right away (like Terrace of Endless Spring being gated by killing Shek'zeer, or Shado-Pan and August Celestials being gated by Golden Lotus), but everyone has equal changes. This is the only (that I can think of) time that you may not be able to get to something right away. Exclusive isn't necessarily bad in this case. I think it was a nice touch, and that it adds a mysterious element to the whole thing.

More importantly, though, it's doing something that hasn't been done in WoW for a long time - it's giving people not doing some content something to aim for. I miss the feeling of sitting in Dalaran and seeing people with gear off of Yogg-Saron, and thinking how I'd love to do that, be part of that "group" of people who are raiding at a high level and so on. With the introduction of LFR, and very easy raids, this is something that went away almost entirely, but the Brawler's Guild's current incarnation is a nice reminder.

As for elitism, I don't really know what you mean or where your objection comes from. It's a bunch of enemies that you can try to defeat. It's what most things in WoW boil down to. If there's any elitism, it's the fault of the players themselves, I don't see anything in-game encouraging it.

I might as well add my two cents into this convo. This has alot of work to be done such as some fights CANNOT (by any means) be done by some classes. Example would be Battletron. My guildmaster is a shadow priest and unlike locks that can cast and move shadow priest find that little harder then the average lock can do. Now I understand of making the fight hard for all classes but it seems like for some if not most all fights its near impossable for some classes. I like the idea but making it impossible is not really making me want to go into it espally when I see enhanse sham go in with EVERY cooldown and burn the boss in 2 seconds flat.

#Bruce2016

I haven't done Battletron yet, and I'm not denying the veracity of your claim, but I also wouldn't be surprised to hear that the mob has been defeated by a Shadow Priest (or more). I find that, most often, when someone says "My class can't do this!" it's a hasty statement stemming from the frustration of failure, and it's almost always rebutted by someone else simply proving that it can be done. And if it is truly an issue, then I'm sure Blizzard will fix it ;)

[NerdEsq 8]

I was going to get a ticket the other day, but in that same day 3 guildies decided they were going to buy their ticket, and 2 offered me their invite when they get to the right rank. :)

I've got more than enough to keep me busy, *coughpetbattlescough* so I'm waiting, but excited for it when it comes. :D

It's nice to read about other people's thoughts on it.

[NightShade 14]

What I have done so far has been a lot of fun. Got to rank 3.75 and haven't been back down in a bit, wanted to get the 500 strength gem for the sha touched slot and been gearing my toons a bit more an working a lock as well trying to get closer to 90 with it. So far I have taken 3 mele class toons in A warrior, DK and Paladin and gotten past rank 1 with all and with the DK and paladin I was hitting a wall about 1.5 or so.

With my warrior I was hitting a wall on Mazhareen but did not realize that the damage he dealt went up as his health decreased so i was using my stuns at the wrong time. Haven't been back yet to remedy that.

I do agree that some elitism is bound to happen but in any end content area you will have that. Raids, PVP, etc. Some people just plain think they are better than others. I dislike the pvp aspect of the game after doing vanilla AV, I loved the long fights and the fun of summoning the giants to the field when the horde wanted to turtle. Now the fights can be overrun by someone in full arena gear when you go in with a basic pvp set and it take s a lot of the fun out. Would almost be nice if they would gearcheck and put you into a brack where you can play against other with more like gear as well as the same level.

I bought my invite for about 15k on Medivh and have seen some go for less than 1500G though some are still in the 5 to 7k range. I got mine just so I could go in and work my skills a bit hone my damage output and not have other people to fall back on. When you have to learn how to rely on your own skill set and gear you either get better in the brawlers guild or you won't progress.